Natsuo groaned as he waited for the coffee machine to finish brewing so he could get the hell out of this damn house already, Fuyumi was saying something about how coffee was bad for him and would stunt his height, but he wasn't awake enough to pretend to be nice to her today and was outright ignoring her to keep from snapping at her.
Thankfully for Fuyumi's emotions and his sanity the coffee machine finished in a few seconds, and he poured himself a cup then retreated to his room taking his first sip and was rewarded by his brain for the caffeine hit. The next time he opened his eyes his mind was much clearer so he could focus on his essay on mutation trait inheritance of non-mutant quirked children for his next class.
Natsuo knew he should've finished it last night but as hard as he was working toward his medical license, there were things that were just more important, the hour where he was going to write it Shouto had managed to sneak out of the main house, and like hell he wasn't going to go meet up with his little brother when he could.
He could count on one hand how many times he and Shouto have actually interacted together since Touya had passed and he hated it. Natsuo hated that each time Shouto would look him like he had hung the stars in the sky just for meeting with him, Shouto was so utterly isolated by Enji that Natsuo had no idea why Shouto still cared about him about anything other than surviving the hell Enji was putting him through.
Remembering what did happen last night Natsuo heart swelled in his chest and much as it broke for his brother and the god-awful situation Shouto was trapped in.
He had intentionally gotten home late to avoid Enji and noticed Shouto about to sneak out of the main house and he had rushed to open the window for his brother, Shouto had was practically clinging to him as they ran off to the wooded area behind the houses.
Like every other time, Natsuo led Shouto to the spot Touya had cleared for them years ago to hide away from Enji and he tried to make up for all the lost time stolen from them by Enji's tyrannical control over his little brother. During this time Shouto would aways ask him about how his life was going, and when he started college this year if he was doing well in his classes, then Shouto would hang on his every word.
Shouto would also ask about things he didn't understand but wouldn't dare ask anyone else, like what schools were like since he had never left the house for anything except when Enji dragged him to events or his agency, and at around half an hour they were forced to go back to the buildings unless they wanted Enji to get wise about they had done.
They had only made that mistake once and Enji had lost his crap and permanently banned Natsuo from ever going to the main house, Enji almost kicked him out just to ensure he couldn't "corrupt" Shouto with his hollow-blood.
Enji's complete control over them and their lives made him sick and so unbelievably frustrated that he needed to rely on the bastard's influence in order to get Shouto away from him, he wasn't so blinded by his hatred of Enji to be ignorant that he was only able to enroll in a medical college because he shared a last name with that man.
And currently speaking becoming a doctor was the only way he could get enough money to safely ditch Enji for good, sure there were faster careers that he could get a lot of money from, but he chose medicine because he refused to let what happened to Touya happen to Shouto, so while it might take longer than he'd prefer he was learning everything he could ever need to fix the damage Enji caused by running Shouto into the ground.
A thought that made angry tears start to form because of how fucked up their life undeniably was and maybe it wouldn't be that bad if they had anyone one else in their corner but from the beginning, they had exactly three people to turn to.
They used to have their mom, but Enji had driven her to the breaking point and then locked her away with a bunch of doctors who would keep her high on drugs she didn't need to make her quiet and complacent so Natsuo could hardly rely on her for help.
He should've been able to lean on Fuyumi since she was the only other person in the house but even after what Enji did to Touya she was still steadfast in defending Enji as their father and would plead with him to just try and get along with him so they could be a family, she had to have the worst case of Stockholm syndrome or some kind of massive delusion to being saying half the things she did.
And Touya... Touya was only person Natsuo would ever trust to keep Shouto safe and the only one of them strong enough, or maybe foolish enough to stand up and argue with Enji about how he treated Shouto before the bastard killed him.
Fuyumi could lie to herself all she wanted but Natsuo remembered what happened that night and while he'd never clearly remember the words Touya was yelling before the fire erupted, he knew in his heart what had they were, Touya had enough of watching that bastard torturing Shouto and stood up to Enji... and he was killed for it.
Natsuo stopped calling Enji anything other than his given that night much to Fuyumi's distress but the thought of calling the man who mostly murdered Touya in cold blood "father" physically made him sick, and it had given him the determination to stop being indifferent and protect Shouto. And the best way to do that was to ensure Shouto could escape from the life Enji had planned for his little brother since he was born, so that Touya wouldn't have died completely in vain.
Natsuo being quirkless however had greatly limited in his options since most people apparently shared Enji's view on the quirkless, which... wasn't great but Touya had risked everything to give them the life they deserved to have before he died and fought with his last breath for that right, if Natsuo didn't put his all into this it would just be disrespectful to Touya's memory.
Which was why he was studying his ass off to become a doctor as fast as possible and last week he figured out something that would greatly help with that goal.
While there were thousands of quirkless "support" boards online Natsuo rarely visited them unless he needed to ask about his abnormal biology since he honestly didn't have the time to be an internet-denizen but by some miracle when he was searching for a post about how to hide their goosebumps, he came across a new post by a throwaway account about how they could become an E.M.T without a M.D that was blowing up.
That post had been a god send and if he ever met who made that post Natsuo would kiss them in public with no shame.
Because getting certified and finding a place to work would be all but child's play if he used Enji's connections, working as an E.M.T would give him a massive head start in getting Shouto free that previously would've been impossible, he'd get a decent amount of money that would be the start of the funds they'd need to run away and having a couple of years of experience in the medical field would help him standout for something other than Enji's kid.
Sure, it was grueling juggling his college classes and taking as many E.M.T courses he could but he knew it would all be worth it once he and Shouto were financially free from Enji, and getting that little certificate after three months only solidified that feeling and Natsuo immediately began looking for a local district he could work, then no doubt because his last name was Todoroki he found a good placement that was close to the college he was enrolled in.
So, this time when Natsuo was getting ready to leave the house he packed and extra bag carrying the work clothes he purchased a couple of days ago with plans to do his first shift after he spent the morning in his classes, and when he was changing in the bathrooms much later in the day, he couldn't help but feeling slightly giddy with anticipation of starting his first shift.
Then was immediately disappointed when the woman waiting for him was a classic bootlicker that clearly wanted an in with the Todoroki "family" as she showed him around the facility and where he'd be working, she also introduced him to a few of his coworkers before she left to do her job but not before pulling him aside and promising to handle any problems, and that all he had to do was call her number.
His remaining excitement was quashed when things went about how he expected after that with his coworkers being stand-offish assuming he was just a rich brat getting in through connections, which was kind of fair given he absolutely did but he was just as qualified as any other new recruit, but it seemed that being related to Enji was just as much of a curse as it was a blessing in getting him this job.
And Natsuo didn't want to admit it, but he could understand why they didn't like him, it was kind of given how many people Enji hurt almost daily, but he could privately hope people wouldn't just lump in him in with Enji so much, but he could grit his teeth and bear it, this was all for Shouto and both of his brothers dealt with Enji on a daily basis so he could handle some judge-y idiots.
The head of the department scowled at him, but the woman was at least civil as she explained his duties and checked over the uniform he prepared was up to code, then once he established he wasn't a moron, Natsuo was led to the bay so that could meet his partner/trainer, but she got called away by one of the nurses over an emergency and told Natsuo his coworkers would point him in the right direction and to just look for Taira-San.
Natsuo couldn't be annoyed since it was someone's life and he went to the ambulance bay and over to two of his coworkers if they knew where Taira was, the two women scowled as soon as they heard him say that name "Yeah, he's over restocking the med-cabinet in the ambulance on the other side of the bay." the bluenette told him with her arms crossed, Natsuo nodded turning away so he could go find Taira but not fast enough to hear the other woman with green stripes as she whispered "Gosh, poor kid getting stuck with Taira."
Natsuo paused to consider what the girl could've meant but shook it off and continued figuring he'd deal with that bridge when he came to it, crossing the bay wasn't a long trek and there was only one ambulance that had its backdoors open "Excuse me, Taira-San?" Natsuo tentatively called and the shuffling in the ambulance stopped, and he could hear someone coming over to the doors.
Natsuo was surprised to see someone younger than Shouto poke his head out "Yes?" the boy asked and Natsuo blinked before he shook his head "Hello, I'm Natsuo, Genshiki-San said we would be working together." Natsuo told the guy, dismissing his young looks as a side effect of his quirk for now, Taira apparently unsurprised just nodded "Ah, right. I haven't seen you around before so you're a new hire, right?" Taira guessed.
"Yeah." Natsuo confirmed and Taira pursed his lips "Okay, come on inside then. I'll show you where everything is kept in the back." Taira invited with a wave of the hand and Natsuo climbed up into the back.
The next ten minutes weren't as bad as he thought it would go since Taira apparently didn't care about him being a Todoroki and told him not to take off orange band on the cart unless he needed to since the locking mechanism was broken and wouldn't be fixed for a while, but before he could be shown anything else there was a call over the radio and Taira ordered him to get in the passenger seat, Natsuo found himself nervous as the two of them left for their first call and wasn't sure how well he'd do.
He didn't have to worry about anything though because Taira was a natural on the ground and had given Natsuo very clear instructions when he had struggled since his mind had blanked out on him, and as the hours went by and Natsuo was washing off some mud from his uniform he found himself wondering why his other coworkers didn't seem to like Taira, from what he had seen the guy was a great person to work with and he wasn't overbearing or pushing his work on him.
"Natsuo, it's time for our lunch break." Taira called breaking him from his thoughts "Got it Taira, I'll be right out." he called over his shoulder and quickly grabbed some paper-towels to dry off and exited the bathroom to see the guy already had another bento box for him "Oh, thanks Taira. I'll take care of lunch next time okay." Natsuo offered as he took the second box from Taira happy to not have to spend any money on lunch, Taira waved him off "It's fine, Natsuo. I don't mind." he told him as he led Natsuo outside to an outdoor area to eat.
Natsuo could've eaten inside in the break room with some of his other coworkers, but he didn't want to deal with any pettiness right now and knew that Taira wasn't too bad to be around and so he was happy to eat outside with him, the box didn't look that bad compared to some of the things he chose to eat sometimes and had just taken his first bite when Taira turned to him "So does your family care?" he asked and Natsuo frowned.
"About what?" Natsuo questioned hoping it wasn't going to be some backwards bull about how much of an ass Enji was "That you're a two-toes." Taira answered and Natsuo blinked "A what?" Natsuo asked wondering why that sounded familiar but couldn't place where he knew it "You know, quirkless?" Taira clarified and Natsuo's stomach dropped.
"W-wait how did you know I'm... " Natsuo didn't dare finish his question, while he wasn't ashamed of being quirkless but he also knew he couldn't risk being exposed as a quirkless person if he wanted to finish medical school, and Enji had spared no expense on the lie about minor cold resistance being his quirk on government forms in order to prevent the scandal of having a hollow son being public knowledge.
Taira blinked back at him then pointed to his feet "We're wearing the same shoes Natsuo." Taira replied and upon looking down Natsuo saw that yes, they were wearing the same specialty Swiss shoes made specifically for quirkless people and he could've smacked himself for not noticing before.
Once the fact settled in Natsuo sat staring at Taira unsure what he should do, he didn't know many people outside of his family so his social skills weren't much better than Shouto's and the few people he did meet weren't quirkless, he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do now.
"Natsuo?" Taira called waving his hand in front of his face making him jump "Yes?" Natsuo said quickly and Taira tilted his head to the side "Well, does your family care about being a two-toes?" Taira asked again and Natsuo fumbled for a moment, because his immediate reaction was to shut down any questions about his family, but he calmed himself down "My siblings don't care." Natsuo answered and Taira nodded "Cool, my dad is pretty supportive in his own way." Taira chimed in smiling "He even makes my lunch for me every day though he complains about me being a pain in the butt." Taira added then began telling Natsuo a little more about his dad during their break.